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I just received a used 10 gallon tank and i was thinking of using it for some cool critters such as Crayfish, Shrimp or a small lobster. Maybe even a small school of fish. Can anyone recommend a good setup for this tank? What/how many can i put in it and how should i decorate it? What fish wouldn't eat the critters?

Crayfish would eat the small fish and can be somewhat destructive. They are interesting to watch as they completely redo your entire aquascaping effort. You could do a shrimp tank with a few different species of shrimp. In that case you mostly want to avoid cichlids and gouramis because they have a tendency to pick on or completely eat shrimp.

if you go with a shrimp tank (which would be really cool!), you could go with a school of small tetras, like neons or glowlights. try to get a fish that is a herbivore or too small to kill anything so that they don't eat your shrimp.

try to get a fish that is a herbivore or too small to kill anything so that they don't eat your shrimp.

Actually one of the most likely gouramis to pick on shrimp is the smallest and only around 1-2" so small fish aren't always safe. Also tetras are more carnivorous yet they don't bother shrimp whereas gouramis are omnivorous and can even lean toward being herbivores but will frequently go after shrimp. It's more the fish that use all areas of the tank and are more intelligent or curious are more likely to attack shrimp. Fish like tetras will swim in the mid-upper levels and won't bother picking at things on the bottom. Gouramis and cichlids have to know every inch of their tank and seing an interesting creature walking around the bottom will go to investigate and possibly nip at it and if they decide it might be edible or for some reason just don't like it they'll kill it.

Another cool critter that would go great in a ten gallon tank would be an African Clawed Frog or two. I have one in a ten gallon tank and they are a blast to watch. They are very disease resistant and don't require much in the way of water quality because they are total air breathers (but they are totally aquatic.) I do recommend a strong filtration system (2-3 times) and weekly water changes in order to keep them in tip top shape. The only drawback is they will eat small fish so, if you go this route it can only be the frogs, but they are HIGHLY entertaining.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

African clawed frogs aren't very suited to a 10g tank. They get rather large, are social, and very active. I'd probably go for at least a 30g up to a 55g tank for them myself. African dwarf frogs would work though and are peaceful. They are more likely to get attacked by the fish and shrimp than the other way around. The main problem with dwarf frogs in a tank with fish is keeping them fed.
This site has info how to tell clawed from dwarf frogs [link=http://members.aol.com/sirchin/dwarf.htm]http://members.aol.com/sirchin/dwarf.htm" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]

I beg to differ.....every website research I've ever found on ACF's says that 10 gallons is plenty for one ACF. Poison Waffle and I had this same conversation during live chat. He breeds ACF's; he thought I could add another frog to my tank. Here is a link on their care:

http:///null]http:///null[/link][link=http://www.xenopus.com/husbandry.htm

And I quote: "Xenopus should have 2-5 gallons of non-chlorinated and chloramine free water per adult."

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 14:39

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 14:40

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

What size does your species of african clawed frog reach? There are a few species and the most common ones I see in petstores reach 10-12" which really would not fit in a 10g comfortably. They are usually already around 6"+ when I see them. I've never seen one of the smaller species sold in a fish or petstore that didn't specialize in rarer species.

Last edited by sham at 21-Oct-2005 14:45

Here is the same link on the products that they have (live frogs to be purchased)

http://www.xenopus.com/products.htm

The wild type adults reach 14 cm (5/12 inches), but the lab bred---which is more like what I have are 9-10 cm (a little over 3-4 inches). The specific ACF I have is Xenopus laevis Not sure what kind of frogs you've seen at the store, but my Kermit was tiny (about 1 inch) when I bought her, and now she's about 3 inches. I'm thinking the tank raised ones max out at 4-5 inches. They're not that big. Check both the links I posted. My ACF is the albino variety.

I also gfound this link very excellent info on ACF's. It says the females max out at 5-6 inches and the males are a lot smaller, check it out:

]http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=17&cat=1848&articleid=3046


Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 15:40[/small

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 15:46

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 15:47

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

On the same site that has the identification and says clawed frogs can reach 10" it also has 2 species including laevis as only getting 4-5".
[link=http://members.aol.com/sirchin/afc.htm]http://members.aol.com/sirchin/afc.htm" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]
The frogs I've seen labelled as clawed frogs were definitely more than 4-5" and the lfs a few blocks away has about 8 of them in a 50g tank that would barely be able to swim around in a 10g tank.

Well, I've never seen the species that I have get any bigger than 6 inches. I'm not sure where these 10 inchers come from or what kind they are for sure, but everyone I've ever seen like mine were small and stayed less than 6 inches. Poison Waffle breeds them and he said mine should get to be 5-6 inches max.

P/S It said females have been seen as large as 10 inches, but I would think that they were probably wild. Just like any other species of fish or anything else, there is always something. Clown loaches get over a foot long, but rarely, IF EVER, in an aquarium.

It said exactly what I said that each frog needs 10 gallons of water. Which one ACF in a ten gallon tank is perfect.
It was just a suggestion.

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 17:39

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Oct-2005 17:46

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

It said 10" in the link I posted above from the same site that identified clawed frogs from dwarf frogs.

Dwarf clawed frogs (see photos below) are not the same as a African Clawed frogs (see photos below). There is a huge size difference between the two with the dwarf clawed being much smaller. They are usually about 1.5 inches long compared to their relative the clawed frog who can reach about 10 inches long.

In the rest of the site(2nd link I sent) it mentions 14 different species of clawed frog including the one frequently listed on the pages you sent which gets around 5".

I guess i'll stick to Neons/Glowlights and some shrimp. What species of shrimp could i get other than Amano or Ghost? How about a fiddler crab or some other crab or lobster? I could even drop the fish if it's a problem.

Yeah, I've always wanted to get one of those little blue lobsters (crayfish), but I've heard they will small fish at night when they're sleeping. A good fish for a ten gallon tank would be a couple of sparkling gouramis....they're neat looking fish that stay little, or you could do a lobster by himself.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I would get a single specimen of a large species of crayfish. There are a lot of awesome Native US crayfish, really colorful.

AquaBid usually has a good selection of American crayfish.






Last edited by Cory Addict at 21-Oct-2005 19:59

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Yea, I've bred my ACF's in a 10 gal with no problems

I never really bothered to see what species I have, but they appear to be the same ones that the Crazy d00d has. My 5-6" ACF's never appear to be cramped or anything because the tank is too small... they're just fine

Anyway, Crays, ACF's, etc would all be fine in a 10 IME (I've done both of them seperately before ). But if you do a critter tank, ya probably should just do a species tank... pick one thing, and ONLY one thing. Crays fight and kill things, ACF's kill things, etc.

Have fun